Visual Literacy


The Board of Studies defines Visual Literacy as follows:

The ability to decode, interpret, create, question, challenge and evaluate texts that communicate with visual images as well as, or rather than, words. Visually literate people can read the intended meaning in a visual text such as an advertisement or a film shot, interpret the purpose and intended meaning, and evaluate the form, structure and features of the text. They can also use images in a creative and appropriate way to express meaning (Board of Studies NSW, 2003a, p. 83).

“A group of abilities concerned with the reading (interpreting), writing (creating) and thinking in terms of images" (Avgerinou, 2001, p. xxvi).
According to Connelly, this means engaging with the tools of representation, discoursed and intertextuality (Connelly, 2006, p. 54).